Each year at the ElectriCities Annual Conference, we recognize individuals for their outstanding contributions to public power.
At the 2024 conference:
- Linda Story from Granite Falls received the Lifetime Achievement Award.
- Jackie Rushing from Concord received the Distinguished Service Award.
- Mariana Greene from New River Light and Power received the Rising Star Award.
Let’s meet the 2024 Public Power Distinguished Service Award recipient, Jackie Rushing.
The Distinguished Service Award recognizes leaders with 10 or more years of experience who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and dedication to public power, brought their organization to a new level of excellence, led by example, and inspired their employees and staff to improve processes, services, and operations.
That describes Jackie Rushing perfectly.
There’s a saying that if you love what you do, you’ll never have to work a day in your life. Jackie loves linework and serving his community. In fact, he loves doing both of those things so much, he’s been doing them for more than 43 years.
In 1981, Jackie began working on Concord Light and Water’s tree crew. Soon after, he joined the overhead lineman division of what would become the City of Concord’s Electric Systems Department. He served as a lineworker for 28 years before moving into management in 2009.
For Jackie, the life of a lineworker is more than a career, it’s a calling. Working the lines, training the next generation, and making things better for the community—that’s Jackie’s passion.
He’s quick to respond to calls for help. During local outages and storm responses, he’s a leader in the control room, triaging outages, assigning crews, and planning restorations. His top priority is the well-being of his team and making sure they return home safely. And his generosity and expertise extend beyond Concord. He has traveled to at least 15 communities across multiple states to help restore power after major weather events.
Having spent most of his career in the field and knowing first-hand the dangers of linework, Jackie has made it his mission to educate and train the next generation. He has served on the North Carolina Association of Municipal Electric Systems (NCAMES) Safety & Training Committee for over 16 years and has been a board member for the past four. That has enabled him to help write the safety standards that lineworkers across the state use every day.
Through his work with NCAMES, Jackie led efforts to create the first rodeo team in Concord, seeing the rodeo as an opportunity to motivate and inspire lineworkers to keep improving their skills and to better understand safety practices.
Jackie completed ElectriCities’ lineworker career development program, and he has taught ElectriCities Climbing Schools. He encourages coworkers to pursue opportunities to advance their knowledge and skills.
Jackie knows that to continue delivering exceptional service and reliability to the community, we must continue to embrace new technologies. He’s an advocate for adopting robust electronic communications, mapping, monitoring, and metering systems. He knows it’s essential for lineworkers to be equipped with the tools necessary to meet the demands of an ever-evolving industry.
Believing that public power truly is community driven, when Jackie’s not at work, he looks for more ways to give back. He has organized softball tournaments to raise money for coworkers with ALS, and he assists with various fundraisers, including the annual Fallen Linemen Foundation fundraiser.
Presenting the award at the Annual Conference, Troy Lewis, Chairman of ElectriCities’ Board of Directors, said, “Jackie Rushing is an exemplary leader who inspires excellence, dedication, and teamwork in all that he does—truly deserving of this year’s Public Power Distinguished Service Award.”
Congratulations, Jackie.